Sotsiaalmeediakanalite kasutus Eesti ajakirjanike töös

The main objective of the present thesis „The usage of social media among Estonian journalists“ is to identify to what extent social media affects the content of professional journalism. New media technologies have influenced journalists work. Traditional skills and roles of journalists have remained, but tools have changed (International Labour Organisation 2004). Current research examines how much Estonian journalists use social media in their everyday work. The focus is on journalists and editors of Estonian newspapers with the largest readership. First the quantitative analysis aims to identify the most active social media users. Total 259 Estonian online and print media journalists were examined about the presence and usage of social media channels. Ten interviews with most active social media users, based on quantitative analysis, were performed. Interviews explored the usage of major social media channels (blog, Twitter, Facebook) as the news promoting medium and source of information, in addition journalists had to evaluate the future of social media as journalist’s everyday working tool. The results showed that 81% of examined Estonian journalists use at least one social media channel, with Twitter found to be most popular channel in journalist’s work. However, results revealed that there are far less actively posting users. The main topic of social media posts is personal life, which shows that very few journalists are using social media as the news promoting channel. Only ten of examined Estonian journalists are using social media for promoting news, referring to the articles to provoke discussions and thereby including readers to news production process. Facebook, because it’s wider network, is rather seen as a marketing channel. More journalists are using social media as source of information, to which are prescribed both Twitter and Facebook. Using social media raises several ethical issues: quality of information and lack of privacy protection. Estonian journalists do not see social media as a major tool in the future, rather as an optional feature that will accelerate the availability of information. Journalists see greater benefits of social media on online journalism and publications of social life. Because of cultural and historical background Estonian media consumers are not ready for being members of participatory media. Therefore Estonian journalists are passive involving readers into the news production process. Social media affects the content of professional journalism in Estonia only slightly, because journalists are more active using social media as source of information instead promoting debate of important issues. At present Estonian press is in the progressive developement, on the basis of foreign practices and the need to establish rules of social media by the Estonian Newspapers Association - journalists can become acquainted with the new possibilities and solutions. Keywords: social media, traditional journalism, participatory media, source of information, news promoting.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2589024~S1*es